I'm thinking the cost of living in an area should be reflected in the local dance prices. I was reading the other day about a one bedroom apartment some place up north had the rent increase from $1200 per month to over $1400 per month. That sounds incredibly high to me. I bought a new small house a few years back, refinanced when rates were around 4.75 and my payments are less than 900 per month for the whole house. It seems incredible in some parts of the country, poor people are paying more per month than I am. I'm glad my parents never moved to California many years ago. I'd be spending all my money on rent along with some roomates I think. I wouldn't have any extra money for strip clubs. I read some rents out there start at $2,000 a month. Here, I think you could be paying off a very luxurious home in less than 15 years for that kind of payment.
Fortunately, dance prices I believe are cheaper here than in the rest of the country.
Casualguy, that's a big reason why us Yankees like to vacation in the south, everything including the strip clubs seems cheap to us. I rent a waterfront condo in FL for less than half what it would go for in NJ. Even the restaurants in the resort area that I go to are cheaper then my restaurants at home.
There's gotta be a general relationship between cost of living and dance prices, but there are so many puzzling exceptions. Like:
1) Columbus OH, relatively low cost of living, outrageous ($30)low mileage dances (same for Dayton, although mileage better for $25 dances)
2) San Diego, high cost of living, low cost ($10-$15) dances
3) Lots of NJ and CT area clubs, high cost of living, standard $20 dance price
There must be many factors that affect pricing: supply, demand, substitutes (e.g. brothels in Tijuana, or massage parlors), market distortions (restrictive laws), geographic or other types of monopolies (zoning ordinances that basically eliminate the possibility of new clubs), etc. I think all of these apply to clubs. I need my brother, the economist, to figure this out.
In a free market that operates rationally, prices would make some sense. But I don't think that's true of strip club pricing. I've been in lots of clubs where LD prices were high and as a result nobody bought any. You'd think that management would wise up but they never do. And has anyone ever heard of a price war between competing clubs? It never happens. In any given geographic area prices seem to be the same just about everywhere, whether they make any logical sense or not. Seems to me it has little to do with anything other than tradition in the area.
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Prices tend to settle at what people can afford, of course, so it always makes sense to take advantage of poorer areas when you travel.
Why do you think sex tourism is in places like Thailand and Cambodia?
1) Columbus OH, relatively low cost of living, outrageous ($30)low mileage dances (same for Dayton, although mileage better for $25 dances)
2) San Diego, high cost of living, low cost ($10-$15) dances
3) Lots of NJ and CT area clubs, high cost of living, standard $20 dance price
There must be many factors that affect pricing: supply, demand, substitutes (e.g. brothels in Tijuana, or massage parlors), market distortions (restrictive laws), geographic or other types of monopolies (zoning ordinances that basically eliminate the possibility of new clubs), etc. I think all of these apply to clubs. I need my brother, the economist, to figure this out.